South African age restriction agency slaps Apple with notice

The Film and Publication Board (FPB) of South Africa has issued Apple a compliance notice due to non-payment of fees and failure to register as a content distributor.

This is according to acting FPB CEO Makhosazana Lindhorst, who recently told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Communications that Apple’s non-compliance had hurt the agency’s financials.

Lindhorst initially did not name Apple, only telling the committee that a large film distributor had “given them a lot of headache” and owed them substantial sums of money.

After being reminded that she was protected against a defamation claim under parliamentary privilege, Lindhorst identified the distributor as Apple, to the astonishment of some of the committee members.

Lindhorst said they were approaching the Department of Communications and Digital Technologies to find out whether it would be possible to geoblock non-compliant services in South Africa.

She said that as a result of Apple’s non-compliance, they obtained a legal opinion that has given them various options for taking enforcement action against non-compliant distributors.

“We are exploring the issue, and that is where we actually need support — to find out how can we block and if it is possible,” said Lindhorst.

“If you’re not complying, we just click, and you can’t distribute your content in South Africa.”

Thankfully, Lindhorst said the status of their dispute with Apple has now changed.

Although Apple initially resisted complying with the FPB’s demands, they responded positively after the content classification agency issued them with a compliance notice.

Lindhorst said Apple has expressed its intention to become compliant through its legal representatives.

Apple distributes movies and TV shows through its Apple TV app, offering titles for rent and purchase. It also offers a subscription on-demand video service called Apple TV+.

Additionally, it distributes video games through its App Store.

The FPB is responsible for classifying and setting age restrictions for both kinds of content.

It is unclear whether Apple’s current non-compliance extends only to the video content it distributes or also to the games it offers for download.

Until 2013, Apple blocked South Africans from accessing games in the App Store.

The American tech giant never confirmed why it did not offer games in South Africa while its competitors did. However, industry rumour at the time was that it was due to problems with the FPB’s regulations.

Apple began unblocking the games category in its South African App Store on 17 October 2013 after the FPB developed new regulations for classifying and distributing online content.

At the time, the FPB explained that Apple had its own classification system and that the agency was testing Apple’s ratings for compatibility with its requirements.

In 2017, the FPB introduced an annual licensing fee of R795,000 for online platforms to “self-classify” their content.

This was most recently amended on 4 October 2024. Online distributors now pay per title or per season, with a cap of R2,447,373.82 per year.

In response to the committee’s questions about self-classification, Lindhorst said that it is the same as the FPB’s classification, except distributors do it themselves.

She said they monitor distributors to ensure they are classifying correctly through quarterly samples.

“We take the movies that they have classified and test them to ensure that the age rating that is given is correct,” she said.

“If it’s wrongly classified, we retrain them and allow them to reclassify.”

However, if they continue to classify incorrectly, the FPB will take enforcement action. However, Lindhorst said this has not yet been necessary as all registered online distributors have complied with the classification guidelines.

She told the committee that Apple was the only major distributor that had not paid its fees.

MyBroadband contacted Apple and the Film and Publications Board for comment. Apple did not respond by publication.

The FPB said that Apple has renewed its registration and, as of November 2024, is now compliant.